While limping into their bye week at 2-7 the Dallas Cowboys are still just a couple games out of the NFC East lead. But given the lineup of games this weekend, the goal of coming back and taking the division in the second half of 2020 may get a little harder.
Before we look closer, here’s a quick reminder of the NFC East standings heading into Week 10:
- Philadelphia Eagles – 3-4-1 overall, 2-1 division
- Washington Football Team – 2-6 overall, 2-2 division
- Dallas Cowboys – 2-7 overall, 1-2 division
- New York Giants – 2-7 overall, 2-2 division
Right now the only thing keeping the Cowboys from being in 4th place is their head-to-head win over the Giants. But they’ve already lost games to Philly and Washington and have slim margins in the overall record to overcome as well.
The Eagles and Giants are scheduled to meet this week, giving Philadelphia a great chance to pick up a victory and tighten their grip on the division. New York is probably the worst team in the NFC East this year and perhaps the second-worst in football to the Jets.
But that doesn’t mean the G-Men are incapable of an upset. They’re actually coming off a victory last week in Washington and will be the home team this Sunday.
Philadelphia is coming off their bye week and is 1-3 in the games following the respites since Doug Pederson became head coach. However, they’re also riding a two-game win streak before the week off.
Elsewhere in the NFC Least, the Football Team is headed to Detroit to face the 3-5 Lions. Given that they just dropped a game to the Giants, anything is possible with Washington. Vegas certainly agrees as it’s only favoring the Lions by 3.5 points at home.
Of course, with seven weeks still to go after this one, nothing that happens Sunday will make a division win impossible for the Cowboys. They still have rematches with Philadelphia and Washington, both games at home, to make up ground and eliminate the head-to-head tiebreakers.
Sure, some of you are wanting Dallas to tank the season and go get a top-five draft pick. But so far there’s no indication that the Cowboys are moving in that direction, and the fight they showed last week against Pittsburgh was encouraging.
The NFC East will still be very winnable no matter what, but this Sunday’s events could make it just a little tougher.
